


just the right kind

by invaderssayni



Series: it's times like these [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: (or rather a kotatsu), Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed, idk how to tag this, inadvertant snuggling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 19:24:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6533332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invaderssayni/pseuds/invaderssayni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I already have one houseguest, I suppose I can take in one more,” Brycen says philosophically.<br/>“You don’t have to — I mean —” Cheren stammers as they walk out the front door to the gym, only to be greeted by the sight of heavy snowfall. “Oh,” he says in a small voice.<br/>“Icirrus in winter,” he says simply. “Come on, I’ll put the kettle on.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	just the right kind

“Are you staying in town for the winter festival?” the gym leader asks politely as he escorts the challenger to the door.

Cheren groans, resisting the urge to smack himself on the forehead. “Well, that explains why everywhere’s full. I can’t believe I lost track of the date like that!” 

“I apologise for the inconvenience,” Brycen says, frowning at the door. “The festival has increased in popularity in recent years, and the supply of lodging has yet to increase to match. Even local citizens are taking in tourists this year.”

The trainer swears under his breath. “I’ll have to fly back to Mistralton, then...” He’s going to kill Alder the next time he sees him for throwing off his schedule, honestly.

“I already have one houseguest, I suppose I can take in one more,” Brycen says philosophically. 

“You don’t have to — I mean —” Cheren stammers as they walk out the front door to the gym, only to be greeted by the sight of heavy snowfall. “Oh,” he says in a small voice.

“Icirrus in winter,” he says simply. “Come on, I’ll put the kettle on.”

 

Brycen stays for just long enough to make tea, point Cheren to the guest room, and stir the contents of a crock pot before rushing back out in the blizzard to prepare for the winter festival’s opening ceremony, which suits Cheren just fine. He sips his tea and wanders into the living room, thinking maybe he’ll put on Watchy Watchog or something for Mau while he works on his strategy for the Opelucid gym.

Then he sees the absolutely massive kotatsu couch in the middle of the room, and revises his plans. 

“Come on out, kittycat,” Cheren murmurs, letting Mau out of his pokeball. “Want to find the TV remote while I get this thing warmed up?”

The large spotted cat mrrs and starts sniffing around. 

It takes Cheren less time to set up the kotatsu than he thought, considering the last time he saw one in person he was fourteen and visiting his grandmother in Kanto, and before too long he’s snuggled up with his liepard watching old Iron Chef reruns.

“We have a few days to strategise, don’t we,” he murmurs sleepily, scratching Mau behind the ears. Mau stretches and yawns.

He doesn’t remember falling asleep.

 

Alder shifts the box Brycen sent him back with to one hand as he unlocks the door, letting a gust of snow blow inside. The box immediately gets dropped in the hallway — he hopes there wasn’t anything fragile in there — and he toes off his snow boots, revelling in being able to feel his face again. He intends to spend the rest of the evening fully defrosting under Brycen’s table heater couch thing.

Only, once he gets to the living room, he finds it already turned on and Cheren, of all people, napping under it with his liepard. He is going to need to have Words-with-a-capital-W with Brycen in the morning, he reflects wryly, because that is absolutely something that should have been mentioned. He lets Solaris out to help with warming the room and goes to raid the kitchen; once he settles in, he knows he’s probably not going anywhere. 

It is significantly warmer by time he returns thanks to his volcarona, who appears to have curled up on top of the table, and Alder nearly trips over a sweater in the middle of the room that he’s pretty sure wasn’t there before. He drops his loot from the kitchen next to Solaris before shucking off his own outerwear and adding it to the pile. Alder briefly debates the merits of changing into sweatpants, but decides against it on the grounds that it’ll be really warm under the blankets and Brycen has certainly never stood on ceremony with the table. Boxers count as appropriate, right, he concludes with a mental shrug. 

Anyway, he hasn’t seen an episode of Iron Chef in about ten years, and — Alder picks up the remote and pulls up the TV guide — apparently there’s a marathon on this weekend. He pulls one of the lighter blankets over his shoulders, watching with mild interest as Sakai begins plating his dishes for judgement.

A soft meow draws his attention, and he looks down to see Cheren’s liepard looking curiously at him. “Mrr?” it asks.

“Hey there, buddy,” Alder murmurs, petting the cat pokemon. “What’s up?”

“Mrr,” it says, leaning into his hand. 

“If you say so,” he responds easily. 

The liepard yawns, stretches, and ambles off to another room. Who even knows with cats, he muses, shaking his head.

Turning his attention back to the television, he is struck, like so many others before him, by one of life’s great questions.

Who in the world would think ice cream made with _fish eggs_ is a good idea?

 

Cheren really doesn’t want to wake up the next morning — he’s so warm, and he was having the most wonderful dream — but the smell of fresh coffee and the sound of the weather forecast in the background aren’t letting him fall back asleep. He makes a soft noise of complaint, burying his face in the pillow, and is rewarded with a hand stroking his hair.

“Morning,” someone says in a deep voice rough with sleep.

“Mmm,” he mumbles, shaking his head.

A pause. “Are you planning on letting go of me anytime soon?”

“Mm-mmm.” Is he kidding? Cheren never wants to move again. If he could just get back to that dream he was having…

The man huffs out a laugh. “Should’ve known you’d be a cuddler. And not that it’s not cute as hell, but at least let me get my coffee?”

...Wait a minute. 

Cheren cracks an eye open and squints for a moment before his brain processes the shape of his pillow as being someone’s torso. A very nice looking torso, belonging to someone with long ginger hair—

“Arceus Christ, Alder!” he screeches, abruptly flinging himself backwards. “I am so sorry! I... wait, what are you doing here?”

He shrugs casually, untangling himself from the blankets. “Brycen roped me into helping him with setup for his festival thing. Coffee?”

Cheren flops back onto the cushions with a groan. Of course he would be the other houseguest. Of course. “Yes, please.”

The man gets up and heads toward the kitchen, giving Cheren several pieces of vital information. First, Alder owns novelty delibird-patterned boxers. Secondly, he has apparently never skipped leg day in his life, good lord, and third...

Cheren fans himself, feeling his face heat up. _Well._ He supposes he can’t deny that he thinks Alder’s attractive anymore. Wow. Okay. He can absolutely deal with this like an adult and not make things incredibly awkward.

“Cream, no sugar, right?” Alder asks rhetorically as he walks back to the kotatsu and hands Cheren a mug of hot coffee. 

“You remembered,” he murmurs, feeling oddly touched. They’d only had coffee once, and yeah, it was only a few days ago, but... but he really needs to stop overthinking this or he’s going to drive himself up the proverbial wall, so he smiles and drinks his coffee (which is perfect, why is it perfect why is he perfect) and pretends to care about the coverage of last night’s thundersnow.

A door bangs open in the other room. “Alder! Did you let your phone die again?”

Cheren looks at Alder, who shrugs, nonplussed. “I dunno, probably?” he calls back. “There’s coffee, if you want it.”

“I don’t need coffee,” Brycen grumbles, striding into the living room in a heavy coat, “I need —” He pauses, does a double take, and shakes his head. “I need you to take my post. I have a gym challenge.”

Alder yawns. “Sure, I can do that. When?”

The other man stares. “About fifteen minutes ago,” he says flatly.

“...I should put some pants on.”

“Yes. You should.”

 

“Cherry! Hey, Cheren, wait up!”

Cheren waits obligingly for Bianca to catch up with him. “Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you since Driftveil; I was getting worried.”

“I was helping Professor Juniper!” she says excitedly as they begin to walk. “And then I got caught up in all this relationship drama, and did I tell you I evolved my herdier? And Wilbur, too!”

“That’s great, Bianca,” he replies genuinely.

“Yeah! Oh, and Touya’s fighting the gym leader right now, did you know? He texted me earlier, we should go say hi when he’s done! And we can all go to the festival together! I haven’t been since we were little, have you?”

“I kind of feel obligated to go now, since Brycen put me up for the night,” he muses, turning to head towards the gym. “Not that he was there at all, mind. Too busy with setup, apparently.”

Bianca frowns. “He let a complete stranger stay in his house by himself?”

“Of course not. Alder was there, too. And we weren’t... really...” he trails off as Bianca’s grin widens. “Oh no, not you too.”

“Touko told me everything!” she says in a sing-song voice. “Now spill. What happened?”

He sighs. “Nothing happened. I fell asleep watching Iron Chef, and when I woke up, he was there.” Next to me under a kotatsu blanket, he doesn’t say. “Apparently he wears holiday print boxers, and he remembered how I take my coffee, but really, nothing of interest to report.”

Bianca giggles at that. “Aww. That’s sweet, though!”

“If you say so,” he says with a shrug, brushing a pile of snow off of a bench outside the gym. “I think I might pick up an axew for the last gym. I hear they live in Mistralton Cave, it’s not that far back...”

“Oh, I love axews! Iris has one, you know, and it’s sooooo cute! She called me the other day, and she was telling me,” she begins, and they settle in on the bench to wait for their friend.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank serenity223neko on tumblr for making this even more ridiculous and cliched than it already was, thanks a lot buddy ol' pal, and causticcannibal for the quick second-opinion beta read.
> 
> 1) I named Cheren's liepard Mau, which is the ancient Egyptian word for cat. I mean, he already has a serperior named Cleopatra, might as well go with a theme for this series. Also, yes, Mau has yawn as an egg move and uses it on people because he's an annoying little shit.  
> 2) It is a True Fact in my experience that a lot of guys take great joy in wandering about in various states of undress. I've seen the underwear of all my male relatives, some of my friends' male relatives, and my rl male friends. Alder seems to me like he'd be that kind of guy.  
> 3) Seriously, WHY WOULD ANYONE MAKE COD ROE ICE CREAM I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY SAKAI DID THAT (yes that is a real Iron Chef episode, it's on youtube)  
> 4) Alder owns *several* pairs of novelty patterned holiday boxers. Luvdisc for Valentines', buneary for Easter, braviary for 4th of July, pumpkaboo for Halloween...  
> 5) Yes, I'm using both Touya and Touko. They're twins in this series. 
> 
> So, next part is when we start getting some plot stuff involved! And...some other things! I'll be real here and say I mostly wanted some snuggly fluff of a filler part because I hate winter and wish I had an affectionate ginger man to leech body heat from, but also I wanted to drop some ideas to build off of in later parts. 
> 
> Now I just need to replay through Relic Castle...


End file.
